The Body and Compulsion from Infancy to Young Adulthood: New Perspectives on Addiction, Self-Harm and Suicide examines the complex interplay between early childhood experiences and the development of compulsive behaviours across the lifespan, with a focus on how these compulsions present from infancy to young adulthood.

A diverse group of international psychoanalysts from a range of theoretical perspectives and clinical experiences examine the severe bodily symptoms and syndromes often seen in young patients. They provide profound insight into the metapsychological foundations of repetition and destructiveness. Through compelling clinical vignettes and theoretical explorations, the contributors demonstrate how early trauma and neglect can disrupt the psyche, leading to damaging behavioural and emotional pathologies. Conditions such as eating disorders, depression, anxiety, violent behaviour, suicidality, and addiction are explored in detail, with the contributors highlighting the challenges they pose in the therapeutic setting and offering guidance on how to navigate sessions with those suffering from them.

This essential volume provides invaluable insights for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and mental health professionals working with patients struggling with compulsive patterns, while also offering theoretical depth for scholars interested in early development, trauma, and the foundations of psychic structure.

Introduction PART 1: Introduction: compulsive repetition with the body in infancy: consequences in adolescence and adulthood 1. Baby and compulsion 2. Early psychic co‑constructed structure in a hyperconnected world: new challenges for parents and for clinicians: discussion of Christine Anzieu-Premmereur chapter 3. Destructiveness, melancholy and the death drive 4. Some notes on repetition, repetition compulsion and drive: discussion of René Rousillon chapter 5. Repetition compulsion, from infancy to adulthood: a cross‑reading of the articles by C. Anzieu‑Premmereur and R. Roussillon PART 2 Introduction: facing the pain: from substance abuse to human dependence 6. Substance abuse in an adolescent boy: waking the object 7. Substance use as part of a pathological organization: disturbing the persecutor/protector of an adolescent girl 8. A shelter of numbness 9. Discussion on addiction in adolescence through three clinical cases PART 3 Introduction: self‑harming, a challenge for both patients and psychoanalysts 10. Self‑harming in early life and the difficulty in living for some infants 11. The silenced scream: 'under anorexia nervosa' 12. Self‑harm behaviors in adolescents: psychoanalytic understanding 13. Self‑harm behaviors in adolescents: understanding the role of social media, family and society: therapeutic implications 14. Discussion of self‑harming from a French psychoanalytic perspective 15. A 'superstructure' for holding on to or for self‑destroying? PART 4 Introduction: suicide and masochism in adolescence today 16. An endless tragedy: attempts and suicide in childhood and adolescence 17. Are the kids alright? Why is life unlivable?: suicidal tendencies in gender disorders and trans identity 18. Hosting strangeness: self‑harm and suicide in adolescence 19. Discussion on suicides and masochism in adolescence today through three clinical cases 20. Some reflections on the three papers of suicide and masochism in adolescence today